


Wait, You Have A Sister?

by Rhymefire



Series: Soldiers and Engineers [1]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Cooking, Engie with anger issues, Engineer fic, Manipulative Shepard, horrible use of carrots, pet varren, shitty siblings, stir fry's
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 20:32:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13372530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhymefire/pseuds/Rhymefire
Summary: Commander John Shepard has a list of upgrades that the Normandy needs in order to face the reapers. His life depends on it. His crew depends on it. The galaxy depends on it. But who can he possibly trust with such an important task? He will have to do the one thing he's avoided doing ever since Cerberus brought him back to life. He'll have to contact his sister.





	Wait, You Have A Sister?

Jane Shepard huffed a bit as she regarded her front door. How on earth to get in? In the end, she clutched her groceries tightly and settled on kicking it. “Kenn,” she shouted. “I’m back.”

The door swung open. The groceries blocked her view of her roommate, but she nodded in thanks anyways. “We’ve been doing good,” she continued. “Got the good stuff this time. Managed to get my hands on a few spices too.” She kicked the door shut and dumped her groceries onto the table.

Then she froze. Kenn was not trailing behind her as he normally did when she returned from shopping. Instead, he sat at the table cheerfully waving at her. She whirled around.

Her brother had changed little since she’d seen him last. He still wore the same N7 armour. He still regarded her through cool, green eyes. He still had the same dirty red hair they both shared. Even his freckles were all there. He even stood the same way he always did – at attention, as though her home was just another military ship.

Unwittingly, she stepped back and bumped against the table. She shook her head slightly and turned away from him. She fumbled through the grocery bags though she could hardly see them through a haze of tears. Don’t cry. She wouldn’t cry. Kenn tilted his head. “Jane? What’s wrong?”

She ignored him. “The groceries need to be put away. They’ll spoil.”

“I brought you some flowers,” her brother said.

She snatched the roses from his fingers and slapped them uselessly against his armour. “No. You don’t get to bring me flowers. No more flowers. I don’t want flowers from you ever again. Go ahead and shove them up your ass, for all I care.” She turned back to her roommate. “Kenn, this is my brother. His name is John Shepard. You might remember him from the news. He zips around the stars playing soldier. Earlier he saved the council. And then the citadel, because that just wasn’t enough. Then he beat back the reapers. Then he died. Then a terrorist group brought him back to life, and do you know what he did next?” She dropped the flowers and kicked them across the room. She was shouting now, and the tears were practically streaming down her face, but she didn’t care. “Did he visit his sister? Nope! He sent me an e-mail. Two lines. ‘Don’t worry. I’m not dead.’ Two fucking lines. So no flowers!”

John only sighed a little, as though he had expected this. He picked up the flowers and dusted them off a little. Then he held them out again. “A dozen roses. They’re your favourite.”

“Get out of my house.”

“I’d like to introduce you to some of my crew members. They’re waiting outside.”

Of course. Just like him. The fearless Commander Shepard. How impressive. She gestured towards the door. “Fine.”

He smiled and set the flowers down on the table. She followed him to the door. As soon as he opened it she shoved him in the small of the back. He gave her an amused look and stood in the doorway. She braced herself against the doorway and pushed him harder. It was like trying to move a mountain. A turian and a drell watched her, bug-eyed. John waved at them in turn. “This is Garrus Vakarian, my second in command. That’s Thane Krios.” He tilted his head back at Jane, as though she were not still trying to shove him out of her house. “This is my little sister, Jane.”

“Wait,” Garrus said. “You have a sister?”

“Nice,” Jane said. “Real nice. What am I, chopped liver?”

 _“Jane.”_ John gave her a look.

“Blah, blah, blah. Look how cool I am with my teammates,” she snapped. There was no way to move him. She gave up and leaned against the doorway. “Look, can we not do this right now? Just tell me what you want.”

John gave her a wounded expression. “I-“

“Want something. What is it?”

He smiled at her then. “I need your help.”

Jane groaned and retreated into the safety of her home. Useless, idiot brother. Did he really think he could just waltz in here and expect her to drop everything? After not even a word? Seriously? “I need to make dinner.” She heard three pairs of footsteps behind her. “Hey! Get that scum out of my house.”

She moved into the kitchen and slammed a pan onto the stove. She heard John sigh and mutter something. “Jane, you can’t say things like that. Every time you do, people think you’re a racist.”

Kenn slunk into the kitchen. She turned to the quarian and said, “I’ll explain later, okay? One thing at a time.” Kenn gave her what she thought was an apprehensive look – that helmet made it so hard to tell – and nodded.

“I’ll just go to my room then.”

She nodded. Their kitchen wasn’t exactly big, and the quarian had to squeeze past her brother on the way out. John leaned against the wall, watching her prepare her ingredients. The turian and drell hovered in the background, eyeing her curiously. She stuck her tongue out at them and said, “I don’t know them. Why should I care what they think of me? You know I don’t like….” She gave up trying to find the right word and waved vaguely at her brother, his crew and half the kitchen. “You get a pass cause you’re my brother, but they’re not.”

“Thane isn’t part of the military, and Garrus is a good friend,” John said patiently.

She ignored him, and focused on slicing a carrot. “I’m pretending this is your dick right now. I don’t even need a carrot for this dish.”

John’s eyes didn’t even flicker. He gazed at her impassively. “I need your help.” Jane shrugged and tossed the ingredients into the pan. A stir fry would be good for tonight’s dinner. After a moment’s thought, she scraped the carrot into the pan too. She gave a pleased hum at her brother’s startled wince. Kenn already had leftovers in the fridge, so she just had to cook for herself tonight. “What I need,” John continued, “is the best engineer in the galaxy, and that’s you.”

“Uh huh.”

“You’re the only one who can install the upgrades I need. If you won’t do it for me, will you do it for my ship? She’s been remade you know. She’s twice as big now.”

Jane paused. “Are you seriously telling me the bastards who rebuilt it changed my designs?”

John turned to his crew. “Jane helped build the original Normandy. She’s very talented.”

“That’s very impressive,” the drell said.

She waved her spatula at him. “No one asked you,” she snapped.

John shifted slightly. “The designs aren’t yours, Jane. You worked with a team. And they improved the designs.”

She scoffed and tipped her stir fry onto a plate. “I can’t believe this. You show up without a word. You bring military goons into my house. You tell me my designs are shit and then you want me to fix up your ship? What, did those Cerberus idiots do something wrong? You can’t sweet talk the ship into running smoothly?”

“I tried that already,” John said. He plucked a morsel from her plate and popped it in his mouth. “This is good. You’re cooking’s gotten better.”

“Says the man who can’t even make coffee. Want a piece of carrot? Made it just for you.”

John returned her near-manic grin with an easy smile of his own. “I can’t say no to my sweet sister.”

She watched him eat a piece. His crew actually shuddered. She couldn’t help but smile and stifle a laugh. “Okay, what is it?”

He pulled a list out of his pocket and held it out. She leaned close to him so she could read it. “The Silaris heavy armor, multicore shielding and the thanix cannons are the most important, but I would appreciate the other items as well,” he said.

She shook her head. “That’s my brother. Always thinking like a soldier. What you should be focusing on is the modular probe bay and the mineral scanner. Not to mention the propulsion system. You can’t fit all this other stuff on a ship unless you have the parts and I’m willing to bet that Cerberus isn’t giving you them. Cheapskates.”

John raised a brow. “They rebuilt the Normandy and brought me back from the dead. They’ve already sunk a lot of money into this, you know.” He tapped the list. “And the original Normandy didn’t have these, either.”

She rolled her eyes. “Duh. It was built for stealth, not destroying everything around it. I don’t even know why you need this stuff.”

“To fight the Reapers.”

She groaned and started to rub her temples. Lovely. There was no point in arguing that. If her brother said the Reapers were back, they were back. John wasn’t one to make such a statement lightly. She looked at the list again. “I’ll look at your ship. No promises. I need to see what your idiot Cerberus backers did to my designs first.”

He smiled at her. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet, I have conditions.” He stilled at that, and turned an impassive gaze on her. Jane grinned and ticked them off on her fingers as she listed them. “First, Kenn comes with me. I’m going to need someone to help me out and I don’t trust Cerberus people as far as I can throw them. They did staff your ship didn’t they?”

“I’ve been replacing the more hopeless Cerberus crew members a few at a time whenever we land.”

She laughed. “By hopeless, you mean the ones you can’t make defect later to join Team Shepard? It’s your trademark move, after all.” He smiled thinly. “I’m also taking Whuffles with me.”

“Whuffles?”

“I’ll get him.” She whistled and a varren skidded towards her. It bumped into her leg and snarled at her brother. She leaned down and scratched Whuffles behind the ear. “These are friends, girl. Easy now.”

Her brother groaned. “You have a pet varren? And you named it _Whuffles?_ ”

“Shut up, she’s adorable. Aren’t you? Who’s a pretty girl? You are. Yes, you are.” The varren keened under Jane’s touch and leaned into her fingers. “She’s not just any varren, you know. I got her from Thessia. She’s a biotic. Neat, huh?”

“That thing is not getting on my ship.”

“No Whuffles, no Jane. We’re a team.”

“No. You’re not a team with a biotic varren named Whuffles,” John said flatly.

“We’re not just any team, now we’re part of Team Shepard. Isn’t that right, Whuffles? We’re going to help my idiot brother save the galaxy, aren’t we?”

_“Jane.”_

“Yes, we are? Why? Because if the reapers kill us all, how can I get tasty nummies for you? Whuffles needs her nummies, doesn’t she? Otherwise she gets grumpy.”

“For the love of God, stop that. Why do you even have a pet varren?” He groaned and cradled his head in his hands. _“Why?”_

“Tough neighborhood.”

_“There are so many other options.”_

“No Whuffles, no Jane!” She sang out. The turian and drell looked at her as though she were a new – and potentially dangerous – type of human. Perhaps a never before seen subspecies that required careful observation.

“Fine. Just keep it in you r quarters.”

“She gets the run of the ship.”

_“Jane.”_

“Relax, she’ll just follow me around, anyways. She’s my little guard dog.” Whuffles screeched in agreement.

“Fine.”

Jane stood up and Whuffles danced happily around her. “Perfect.” She shouted, “Hey Kenn, we’re joining my brother’s crew on his starship!”

Something crashed and she heard Kenn curse. Then the quarian practically skidded into view. “What?”

“I’ll explain on the way. Let’s go see this brand new ship of yours. I’m going to get all up in those engines.” She rubbed her hands together.

 

**Author's Note:**

> In my head, Jane was upset once and said that nobody would ever get her flowers because she wasn't pretty enough. Then, John said not to worry because he would always get her flowers. Ever since then, he buys her a dozen roses whenever he returns from a mission.


End file.
